By now you’ve all heard the Fox News report last week that “unnamed” former McCain advisers leaked that Sarah Palin was confused about whether Africa was a continent, and which countries were in NAFTA. I was perfectly happy staying under the radar as an anonymous source for Fox News‘ Carl Cameron, but now that Palin has accused her accusers of being “unprofessional…jerks…cowards… taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news” and begun to cast doubt on the Fox News report, maybe she’s right to a certain extent. For those of us on the McCain campaign who thought that she acted like a rogue diva and lost John the election, maybe we DO have a responsibility to come out in public. But Sarah… careful what you ask for: some of us may have more to reveal.

So yes, to be clear, last week I was the one who leaked those things to a producer at Fox News who works with Cameron. Carl and his producers are good guys, and I don’t want them to have to worry about protecting their sources (and going through the wringer ala Judith Miller or Matt Cooper) on something like this.

As you know, I was one of the foreign policy advisers on the McCain campaign who worked with Randy Scheunemann to help prep Sarah on her debate with Joe Biden. Did we outright give her a geography quiz when we started the prep? No, of course not. But yes, in the context of the prep, it slowly became apparent that her grasp of basic geo-political knowledge had major gaps. Could she have passed a multiple choice test about South Africa or NAFTA. Probably. But it was clear that she simply didn’t have the ease of knowledge that we come to expect from a major party political candidate. Other slights came up, too: Not knowing the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas. Or the difference between the Shiites and Suni. Or when it came to international terrorist organizations, knowing that the IRA was in Northern Ireland, and ETA in Spain.

The real thing we had to constantly remind her was to never, ever compare herself in any way to Hillary Clinton, as she had at her announcement speech. We had it on good authority that Biden was prepping to unleash the inevitable line, “I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine. And Sarah, you’re no Hillary Clinton.” Alas, Biden would have been right.

And Hillary Clinton would have been lost in the details of how you actually RUN anything. So tit for tat. And, no, I don’t think it’s that much of an advantage that you’ve been in Washington for 100 years and know every diplomat by his first name. That’s part of the problem!

We had it on good authority that Biden was prepping to unleash the inevitable line, I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine. And Sarah, youre no Hillary Clinton. Alas, Biden would have been right.<<

Let him use that line. This is a guy who spent over 30 years in the Senate and was best known for plagiarizing a British politician. Sarah could have creamed him on that one.

Let me get this straight: He admits to being the source for the Carl Cameron report. He admits that what was in the Carl Cameron report was a bunch of lies. Therefore, he is admitting to spreading lies about Palin to the national media and he is proud of it?

But it was clear that she simply didnt have the ease of knowledge that we come to expect from a major party political candidate. Other slights came up, too: Not knowing the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas. Or the difference between the Shiites and Suni. Or when it came to international terrorist organizations, knowing that the IRA was in Northern Ireland, and ETA in Spain.

There is only one thing anyone needs to know about those groups- they are TERRORISTS. Who the hell cares WHY they are terrorists or what their mailing address is????

Yeah, nowhere in his ‘explanation’ does he reiterate the Africa thing, once his name is officially attached. The woman has a college degree, for crying out loud. Of course she knows that Africa is a continent.

There are any number of specific issues about which Obama or any other major candidate wouldn’t necessarily be able to wax eloquent on a dime. One difference today is that a) the media covers for him, and b) Obama ain’t talkin’, anyway.

He also says effectively that he believes she acted as a rogue diva, while taking no responsibility for her having been chosen as the running mate in the first place, or holding McCain responsible for her having been chosen.

What kinds of successes has he had in his career, anyway? I’d like to know.

33
posted on 11/10/2008 1:56:56 PM PST
by lainie
(The US congress is full to the brim of absolutely disgusting thieves who deserve humiliating ouster.)

The real thing we had to constantly remind her was to never, ever compare herself in any way to Hillary Clinton, as she had at her announcement speech. We had it on good authority that Biden was prepping to unleash the inevitable line, I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine. And Sarah, youre no Hillary Clinton. Alas, Biden would have been right.

Yes, she is no Hillary Clinton and that is a good thing. Some of the ways she is not hillary clinton:

1. She was running on her own executive experience as a mayor and governor, not on some experience by osmosis from being married to someone who held an office 2. She hadn't attempted a government takeover of the health care industry. 3. She hadn't obstructed justice by hiding records that were under subpoena in her cloaset for over a year. 4. She has actually worked in the private sector, has a husband that actually works in the private sector, and doesn't look at motherhood with disdain like hillary.

The debate prep should have had her do everything in her power to trap Biden into the "you're no hillary clinton" line. She could have quipped "So now you're plagiarizing Lloyd Bentsen, eh!" You're absolutely right Joe, I'm no hillary and you are no change at all from the tax and spend big government programs of George McGovern, Mike Dukakis, Walter Mondale, and the rest of the liberal establishment that made the same mistakes under Jimmy Carter that you are planning to repeat with Barak Obama.

The fact that he said that as if it were an insult to Sarah Palin tells us of the integrity of John McCain’s campaign - he had literal enemies of the conservative cause advising him!

This is on John McCain, who we all know is not a conservative and is indeed a liar. John McCain trumped up the false “the Bushies accused me of having a black illegitimate child” to the people of South Carolina. Remember that lie?

If this insider actually did leak, no doubt he did so at John McCain behest.

As for Sarah Palin being no Hilary, of course not. Sarah started at City Council, then became Mayor, then became a State Governor with 80% approval ratings! Hilary was a manchurian candidate who’s only qualification was that she was married to Bill and she wouldn’t tell the cops where the bodies were buried.

36
posted on 11/10/2008 1:58:25 PM PST
by Doug4McCain
(I'm sorry for supporting McCain, but I still love Sarah Palin.)

Yes, he admits he made up both the Africa and NAFTA charges, admits openly that he had no specific knowledge that Gov. Palin did not know either of the things that he so specifically LIED about in his leak..... but pretends it doesn’t matter b/c he had other concerns.....

When lying RINO scum like this are on national campaigns, should we expect anything but disaster?

We know what your judgment and integrity are worth, Mr. Eisenstadt, less than what I just flushed down the toilet.

38
posted on 11/10/2008 1:58:58 PM PST
by Enchante
(Sarah Palin is Worth Infinitely More to Us than Any Vicious RINO Anonymous Staffers)

Or the difference between the Shiites and Suni. Or when it came to international terrorist organizations, knowing that the IRA was in Northern Ireland, and ETA in Spain.

That's okay, virtually NONE of the press knew the difference between the SDS and Weather Underground and those were DOMESTIC terrorist groups. The WU were often called a "1960s radical organization" when in reality they were formed in the final 3 months of the 1960s and did the majority of their bombings in the 1970s, ending their crime spree with a bank robbery in the 1980s.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Republican voters say Alaska Governor Sarah Palin helped John McCains bid for the presidency, even as news reports surface that some McCain staffers think she was a liability.

Only 20% of GOP voters say Palin hurt the partys ticket, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Six percent (6%) say she had no impact, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

Ninety-one percent (91%) of Republicans have a favorable view of Palin, including 65% who say their view is Very Favorable. Only eight percent (8%) have an unfavorable view of her, including three percent (3%) Very Unfavorable.

When asked to choose among some of the GOPs top names for their choice for the partys 2012 presidential nominee, 64% say Palin. The next closest contenders are two former governors and unsuccessful challengers for the presidential nomination this year — Mike Huckabee of Arkansas with 12% support and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts with 11%.

These findings echo a survey earlier this week which found that Republicans were happier with their vice presidential candidate than with their presidential nominee. Seventy-one percent (71%) said McCain made the right choice by picking Palin as his running mate, while only 65% said the party picked the right nominee for president.

Political strategist and conservative analyst Martin Eisenstadt is a senior fellow at the The Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy and Founder and President of the influential Eisenstadt Group. .... Mr. Eisenstadt as a rising GOP pundit and a clear-spoken advocate for Rudy Giuliani. Most recently, he has been quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post and Wonkette.

For those of us on the McCain campaign who thought that she acted like a rogue diva and lost John the election, maybe we DO have a responsibility to come out in public. But Sarah careful what you ask for: some of us may have more to reveal.

This is an amazing threat. The fact that he's willing to threaten someone shows as poor judgment as did his backstabbing. Now he has gone off in public and proven that he was out to injure someone.

He blames Palin for McCain's loss. Ridiculous. If anything measurable counts, the reason McCain lost is because he had about a fourth of the money that Obama had. The decision to go with public funding was McCain's, AND McCain/Feingold belongs squarely in McCain's yard. And even then, McCain still couldn't raise for the GOP the money that he needed to compete.

Eisenstadt is out of touch as well with the time at which McCain rose in the polls and fell in the polls. He rose after the convention and surpassed Obama because of Palin. He lost when the bankruptcy issue hit, and he bounced in different directions before finally settling on voting in favor of giving a trillion bucks to whom it may concern.

He lost after Palin clearly held her own in the polls, and McCain showed a serious inability to close a sale with the public on any issue.

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